Modified 1974 Marshall Clip

[glpg80]

Finally finished tweaking this thing and got a better mic to record it in room.

Im happy with the results and wanted to share how it turned out

 

[311boogieman]

Sounds great man

Looks like you found a recording setup you like

 

[Mr. Willy]

Hell. Yes. That is a glorious sound. Nice and wicked.

 

[glpg80]

Hell. Yes. That is a glorious sound. Nice and wicked.

Much thanks! This things been a monster to tune this year. I love a pushed 3 stage CF sound over a 4 stage design, but they’re much more challenging to get this level of gain without cutting the balls off, killing the top end, or instability issues. I’m really happy with how it turned out, and the best part is that the low input still has a clean sound/channel.

 

[glpg80]

Sounds great man

Looks like you found a recording setup you like

Thanks man

Yes this was the Shure MV88 condenser mic recorded off to the side and using a mono setup. It’s good enough for my needs and sounded to my ears more realistic to a room when I did blind tests. I also liked the Roland mics for mobile use but I went with Shure just because of the detail quality it seemed to capture in the room.

 

[Mr. Willy]

Much thanks! This things been a monster to tune this year. I love a pushed 3 stage CF sound over a 4 stage design, but they’re much more challenging to get this level of gain without cutting the balls off, killing the top end, or instability issues. I’m really happy with how it turned out, and the best part is that the low input still has a clean sound/channel.

Man, I think that’s one of the best sounding modded Marshall tones I’ve heard on the internet. It’s right on that edge where any more gain would be redundant. Also still sounds like a Marshall.

 

[dstroud]

wow man sounds awesome!!!

 

[glpg80]

Man, I think that’s one of the best sounding modded Marshall tones I’ve heard on the internet. It’s right on that edge where any more gain would be redundant. Also still sounds like a Marshall.

This is what I started with after restoring it to working order in the technical thread. It had other peoples mods in it but I’d only added a resonance control. It didn’t sound bad, but I’d not yet made my own spin on what I wanted out of a modified Marshall tonally.

It’s been a long year slowly changing it to completion tone wise. It’s a monster now - in the room it’s just easy to play but has all of the Marshall goodness and is super aggressive.

I tuned it with that in mind - This was not blind parts additions from Google searches of others, this was 5 months of tweak, listen, tweak, listen, and adding more and more incrementally (and taking some out because it was too much) to get it where it’s at

 

[Mr. Willy]

This is what I started with after restoring it to working order in the technical thread. It had other peoples mods in it but I’d only added a resonance control. It didn’t sound bad, but I’d not yet made my own spin on what I wanted out of a modified Marshall tonally.

It’s been a long year slowly changing it to completion tone wise. It’s a monster now - in the room it’s just easy to play but has all of the Marshall goodness and is super aggressive.

I tuned it with that in mind - This was not blind parts additions from Google searches of others, this was 5 months of tweak, listen, tweak, listen, and adding more and more incrementally (and taking some out because it was too much) to get it where it’s at

Yeah, your finished product sounds much, much better. That first clip is too much unusable gain for my taste. I dig the saturation, but that kind of gain is unmusical to my ears. No dynamics either. Dude, that’s the way to do it. Tweak, listen, tweak, listen. It’s like setting up your guitars, if you know what you’re doing. You get it just exactly like you want it. I admire you guys that know how to tweak those circuits to get the sound you’re looking for. I’m like a monkey describing the sound in my head when I explain to an amp builder what I’m after, but you guys know the actual components and circuit tweaks that will get you there.

 

[MetalHeadMike]

Man, I think that’s one of the best sounding modded Marshall tones I’ve heard on the internet. It’s right on that edge where any more gain would be redundant. Also still sounds like a Marshall.

Sounds great

 

[glpg80]

Yeah, your finished product sounds much, much better. That first clip is too much unusable gain for my taste. I dig the saturation, but that kind of gain is unmusical to my ears. No dynamics either. Dude, that’s the way to do it. Tweak, listen, tweak, listen. It’s like setting up your guitars, if you know what you’re doing. You get it just exactly like you want it. I admire you guys that know how to tweak those circuits to get the sound you’re looking for. I’m like a monkey describing the sound in my head when I explain to an amp builder what I’m after, but you guys know the actual components and circuit tweaks that will get you there.

Thanks so much for the kind comments! I dreamed of the modded Marshall tone for decades, there’s really only one way to do it - find a doner and go at it. I started with modding the 5150 II you see in the picture - I took a lot of gain out of the lead channel and added a JCM800 OT. I’ve worked up to Marshall circuits over the years - you really can spin your wheels blindly changing things because for every change you do, it also has a negative (more gain means likely less mids due to RC constants, instability, etc)

I fought instability problems early on a few months ago and worked to resolve them. I also didn’t like the mids, and tuned the bark to be as great as it is without taking gain out of it to make it uninspiring to play. This is with the volume only on 2, I cannot imagine what it would sound like as a properly cranked 2203.

 

[glpg80]

wow man sounds awesome!!!

Thank you very much for your kind comment ??

 

[SQUAREHEAD]

Sounds really great GLP!!?

 

[glpg80]

Thanks man! Here’s an updated clip. I tuned the top end to be more aggressive and less vintage. I plan to put this on a switch so that you can turn vintage smear on and off: